


Walls come tumbling down

by Builder



Series: Whoa Bessie [24]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Steve Rogers, Sickfic, Trans Steve Rogers, Vomiting, War Veteran Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22500445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Builder/pseuds/Builder
Summary: James starts the night with a headache.  Steve offers him meds, but James refuses.  “I’ll sleep it off,” he mutters, rubbing his scrunched forehead as he pulls down the covers, shivering slightly in just his boxers and tank.“Ok.”  Steve reaches across the bed and takes the wad of quilt from James’s hand.  “If you’re sure.”James makes a face at the case of Imitrex auto-injectors on the bedside table.  It’s a waste to take one and just go to sleep.  It’s better to save them for the days when he actually has to go and do something.  And besides, they only work when he catches the headache at the nexus.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Whoa Bessie [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/892050
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	Walls come tumbling down

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @builder051

James starts the night with a headache. Steve offers him meds, but James refuses. “I’ll sleep it off,” he mutters, rubbing his scrunched forehead as he pulls down the covers, shivering slightly in just his boxers and tank. 

“Ok.” Steve reaches across the bed and takes the wad of quilt from James’s hand. “If you’re sure.”

James makes a face at the case of Imitrex auto-injectors on the bedside table. It’s a waste to take one and just go to sleep. It’s better to save them for the days when he actually has to go and do something. And besides, they only work when he catches the headache at the nexus.

James slips into bed, and Steve’s arm is immediately around his shoulders. “This ok?” he whispers, his breath tickling James’s ear. 

“Hm.”

“Feel better if I’m close?”

“Yeah.” The bad ones make him miserable like this, wound tightly with pain until he can melt with his chest against Steve’s chest, his chin wedged in a perfect fit between Steve’s ear and his shoulder.

“Ok. Come’ere, Buck.” James is already squirming into place, wincing when the movement jars his tender skull. 

“Ok,” he whispers once he’s settled. “I think… I’m ok.” James licks his dry lips and breathes slowly, willing the motion not to bring on any further throbbing.

Steve’s rib cage moves rhythmically up and down with his breath. James swears he can feel his heartbeat as well. Or perhaps that’s just the blood pounding through the constricted vessels in his own skull.

“Alright. Feel like you can sleep?”

“Hm.”

“Ok. Tell me if anything’s not, alright?”

“Hm,” James sighs again. Even Steve’s soft murmur is hurting his ears. 

Steve exhales, and he wraps his arm around James’s trembling form, sealing him inside the blankets, safe, and warm.

Sleep comes slowly, but leaves abruptly. The gentle rocking of sleepy inhales and exhales suddenly becomes a maelstrom, the mattress a raft on stormy seas. 

James’s stomach bypasses his throat and rises directly to his mouth, the sour taste of bile appearing so suddenly he’s taken aback, coughing and choking before he gains the wherewithal to turn his face a quarter of an inch out of Steve’s collarbone.

He gets as far as the cold sheets on the other side of the bed when everything explodes in a burst of neon red and yellow agony. James grinds his teeth, but his jaw forces open as a gush of sick spills over the pristine surface in front of him. 

He isn’t aware of making any noise, but a moment later, strong hands are cradling him from behind, and a deep voice shushes him. 

“Buck,” Steve says, pulling James’s sweaty hair off his face, “What’s wrong?”

“I… I threw up…”

“You what?”

He can’t repeat himself; his mouth is already watering like he’s going to do it again. James gags, and a pathetic sound comes out with a mouthful of mucous and chyme so bitter it makes his teeth ache. 

“Ok, it’s alright.” Steve rubs his fingers slowly down James’s spine, trailing prickles with the comforting warmth. “Don’t worry about it.” 

James tries to swallow a heave, but the pain is so great his eyes nearly roll up in his head. A whimper escapes his wet lips, and his fingernails scrabble for purchase on the soiled bedclothes. 

“Buck, stop.” Steve catches his wrist and pulls his hand into a fist at shoulder height, kissing it tenderly before squeezing it inside his own. “Just get it up.”

“Nothing… left…” James tries to say. There was barely anything in him to begin with. It’s his head that’s sick, not his stomach. 

“Ok.” Steve strokes his back again. “Think you can sit up? Clean up?”

James opens his eyes, only to see the same glaring rings or aura superimposed over the dark shapes of the bedroom furniture. He decides he prefers the effect on the blackness of the backs of his eyelids, and shuts them again. “Nuh,” he breathes, dragging the back of his hand across his mouth and nose. 

Steve sighs. “Ok.” He gently rests his forehead on their entwined hands. “That can wait, I guess.”

James wants to agree, but can’t think of a way to communicate it without moving some part of his body. He hopes his silence is enough for Steve to read and understand his reply.

It seems it is, for Steve gently plays his fingers up and down James’s spine for a few minutes while both of their heartbeats slow and the dampness in the bed begins to grow cold. 

“We need to move,” Steve eventually insists.

James groans, but he knows Steve is right. He hates the thought of tottering down the hall to sleep on the couch, but what other choice does he have? And where will Steve sleep? Or will Steve even sleep? There isn’t enough space in James’s head to think it over without reigniting something terrible and sickening.

“Hey.” Steve rubs James’s arm. “Stop thinking.”

James gives his head a little shake on instinct, and nearly vomits as vertigo makes the room tip violently back and forth. Steve must see him go pale, and he grabs James across the chest as if pulling him from the choppy waves and dragging him to shore. 

“None of that now.” Steve gives him a half-smile.

“Yeah,” James breathes. He thinks about tagging a curse on the end, but doesn’t have the energy.

“Meds,” Steve says, stretching for the injector pens on the side table while maintaining his touch on James’s arm. “Come on. Drop your pants.”

James sighs. “No. ‘S a waste.”

“You just threw up from pain.”

“Won’t work,” James argues, wishing each word didn’t cost him what feels like an entire day’s worth of energy. “Too late.”

“Don’t care.” Steve slips his fingers under the waistband of James’s boxers and pulls them down a few inches below his hip bone. “I’ve gotta do something. Even if it only takes the edge off.”

“Hmph.”

The click of the cap coming off the auto-injector hurts almost as much as the tiny needle biting through James’s skin. He breathes in sharply at both, then lets out a long stream of air that leaves him feeling flat as a deflated balloon. The tingling in his head starts not long after, and while it does nothing for the pain, it does bring back the desire to burrow. 

James carefully rolls toward Steve, reaching for him, his eyes screwed up against non-existent light pollution. He wants his safe place back, his perfect puzzle piece fit. 

Steve understands, and the empty injector pen hits the floor in his haste to accommodate. “Hey,” he says softly. “I got you.”

“I… I’m…” James doesn’t have the words. It’s part aphasia, part sick, part sleepy, but Steve. 

“I know.”

“Can we stay?”

“In a bed full of puke?” Steve laughs quietly. His ribs expand and contract like a soft massage against James’s belly.

“‘S not the whole bed…”

“Fine.” Steve smiles against him. “I guess that’s fine.”


End file.
